


And Now The World Is Only White Noise (Frequencies That I Can't Understand)

by Lilsciencequeen



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bus Kids AU, F/M, Fluff, Future!Jemma, Hurt/Comfort, lighthouse au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 04:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14804456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilsciencequeen/pseuds/Lilsciencequeen
Summary: “Fitz?” she asked, confusion laced on her face as he came stumbling into her rooms, knocking over a chair as he did so, the wooden thing clattering on the floor. “What are you doing here?”“Rescuing you,” he told her, allowing himself to be wrapped in her embrace. It had been so long since he had last seen Daisy, not since she had been taken by the Kree and taken to this dystopian hellscape over seventy years into the future.// Or one where Fitz and May travel forward in time to rescue a kidnapped Daisy and bring home more guests than they intended.





	1. Chapter 1

“Fitz?” she asked, confusion laced on her face as he came stumbling into her rooms, knocking over a chair as he did so, the wooden thing clattering on the floor. “What are you doing here?”

“Rescuing you,” he told her, allowing himself to be wrapped in her embrace. It had been so long since he had last seen Daisy, not since she had been taken by the Kree and taken to this dystopian hellscape over seventy years into the future. It had taken them months to work out where she was, and how to get here but now here he was, with her once more. It had only been him and May that had travelled forward in time, the other waiting back on the base back in the past in case something went wrong. They needed people to open the portal after all.

Daisy pulled out of his hug, taking in a face that she hadn’t seen in so long. “Took you long enough. I’ve been trapped here for months, fighting other Inhumans for the entertainment of some creepy wanna be emos.”

“I… I… there was… I mean…” Fitz stuttered, unable to find the words that it was that he was looking for but Daisy shook her head.

“I’m joking, come here,” she told him, pulling him in for another hug, the two of them enjoying the comfort of a friend when a movement from the back corner of the room caught Fitz’s eye.

It was one of the servants that he had seen wondering about the halls, wearing blue robes and her forehead painted gold. She had a basket in her arms, full of towels and was making her way from the room, her head bowed and her movements serene. She didn’t even look up at them as she brushed past them, she just got on with her job.

Fitz swallowed hard as she left the room, not even saying anything to them as she did so, not even giving them a second glance over her shoulder. She just left the room, and that was that apparently. “Who?” he began to ask, watching as her figure receded down the corridor. “Who was that?”

“One of Kasius’ servants… the one who’s in charge here. He has dozens of them, doing the dirty work for him. She’s one of his favourites, the one he values the most.”

“Then we have to leave now… May’s waiting, we can get out of here…”

“No, she won’t tell him. She won’t even know who you are, what’s happening here. She’s… all the servants are deaf. They can’t here anything, only what the Kree want them to hear. They think it keeps them… I don’t know, it keeps them in order? I think its just so they don’t rise up against Kasius.” She shivered at the words. She had seen how some of the Kree had treated them, as if they were less than human, as if they existed only to serve and help them. The Kree acted like that job there, that role there was better than the life everyone else in the Lighthouse lived, but Daisy wasn’t too sure. “She’s not going to know what’s happening here, trust me. Jemma, she’s passive. I don’t think she has a bad bone in her body. I don’t even think she would hurt a fly. And Kasius isn’t going to want to lose her. Not because of her skills. Now… how are we getting out of here? I would rather not spend another night here if I could avoid it.”

***

She still flinched when he lost his temper, when he got angry, when he smashed something. She had lived this life for ten years, if not more, had been like this for a decade now and still he scared her. His temper was one that she knew not to get on the wrong side off. She had been on the wrong side of the Kree’s anger before, had suffered because she had, but being on the wrong side of their anger was nothing compared to being on the wrong side of Kasius’ anger. It was something that she would much rather avoid if she could help it.

At times, he was nothing more than a ticking time bomb that was waiting to go off. And when he did, he destroyed everything and everyone in his path.

The glass hit the far wall, shattering and breaking into a dozen shards that fell silently to the ground as he spun to face her, spun to face them. There was a line of them, half a dozen, all waiting for their next orders. Orders that he was already barking out, his lips moving silently until it was her turn to listen.

“With me,” was all that he snapped before turning and leaving his chambers, Jemma following behind him, silent and passive as usual. Another handful of Kree guards fell into step beside him, discussing something or another. Possibly the show that was coming up. She had been helping to plan for it the last number of weeks, and preparations had been completed just the other day for it starting tomorrow. The first number of guests had started to arrive that morning, some of which Jemma knew, most of them she didn’t. And there were more arriving each hour.

“Jemma.” His voice broke through her world of silence once they had entered a side room, the one that he used for meetings. “You were in the Destroyer’s rooms earlier, were you not?”

She paused for a moment, confused as to what he was asking of her at this point in time. “I was,” she eventually replied. She had no idea why she was being asked this, she always tended to be in Daisy’s room, she was her personal hand servant after all, always to be on hand should Daisy need anything. Not that Daisy called for her much, she seemed more than happy to do things for herself.

“So you saw the figure in her room? Our unexpected guest?”

“The man?” A nod from Kasius prompted her to continue. “I don’t know who he was. I thought he was allowed there. I thought he was one of the guests, talking to Da… The Destroyer. I know you like your guests to see what we have to offer. I thought nothing of it. I’m sorry.”

The stare that Kasius forced upon her was icy cold and made her uncomfortable in her skin, and he didn’t speak. He just stepped forward, getting close to her, disregarding her personal space. His breath was hot on her face as he stared her down, not saying anything. She feared violence in that moment, but in the end, pain never came. Instead, he turned on his heel, his hands behind his back and walked off, talking matters to the others, words that she didn’t hear.

Then he turned his attention back to her and once more, the blood in her veins turned to ice. She swallowed her nerves, not wanting to do anything wrong, to be imperfect. She knew what the punishment was for that, and it was something that she would much rather avoid. “You can leave us Jemma. We have matters to be discussing and more of our guests should be arriving soon. See to them, ensure that they’re comfortable, we wouldn’t want them to be uncomfortable, would we?”

His tone indicated that he wasn't in the mood for anyone to disagree with him, for his orders to be disobeyed so she bowed before turning on her own heel and leaving the room, leaving them to discuss whatever matters what it was that needed discussing.

Quake. The Destroyer of Worlds.

And that mysterious man who had been in her room with her, the one who more than likely wasn’t a guest, even a last-minute gate crasher. Because something about him had scared Kasius in a way that she didn’t think was possible, and that in turn scared her because she knew who he’d take his anger out on if something went wrong.

Her.

She had been in the room with them when they had been talking, and though she couldn’t have heard a single word that had been spoken, they would still see it as her

And as quickened her pace down the corridor, wanting this event to be over much quicker than she normally did, she couldn’t push the thoughts of the stranger from her mind, wondering exactly just who he was.

***

Daisy had managed to get him a pass, create him a fake persona to the fight, to the feast, it hadn’t been that hard in the end. She told him that she’d heard from the other competitors that it wasn’t just those who were invited to the event who came, there were always others, those who hadn’t got invites that came along just to see what was happening, just to get in on the action. And now Fitz was one of these people, a space marauder by the name of Boshtok, one of the most feared in the galaxy.

Boshtok, a ruthless and brutal marauder who always got what he wanted. Who left a trail of death and destruction in his wake.

The reputation was so brutal, so well known, so respected it had gotten him a seat with Kasius in the box for the fight earlier, had gotten him on of the spaces on his dinning table, the alien curious about why one so famous would come to what remained of Earth. But he hated the persona that had been created, it touched on wounds that were still raw. It made him out to be everything that he didn’t want to be. Made him into the one person he never wanted to become, his father. But he knew that it had to be done, to get Daisy back, it had to be done, and for her, he was more than prepared to do this.

“I’m curious,” Fitz began after he had been asked why he’d come here, watching as aliens and servants and Inhumans flitted about the room, “to see what has become of the once great planet. And you have the Destroyer, a much wanted possession. Not everyone has someone with her power. Her abilities and yet, you’re selling her to the highest bidder.” The words he said made him feel sick, talking about Daisy in such a derogatory manner. But he knew he had to, to get their plan to work. So they could return home. Daisy was trapped where she was, not allowed to leave without an escort, armed guards, so doing this, getting her with him, it would allow for them to eventually escape. “Why?”

The alien, a pale blue with piercing eyes, Kasius, didn’t reply for a moment, as thought the question that had been asked was one that was one step too far. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, that made Fitz squirm in his very skin, there was a reply. “My father. He thought that I… he sent me here. To control Earth while my brother took control of the empire that he had established. He thought that I could never amount to much, that I was a failure. That I was weak. He told me that I brought shame to my family. Having the Destroyer, I can show my father that I am the son that he wants, the son he didn’t think I was. I take it you have a father who expects greatness from you?”

A nod from Fitz, whilst his stomach churned. He hadn’t expected something like this to occur, something so close to his own experiences. But he could use this to his advantage, this could help him. “My father was the same, always calling me a disappointment. Weak. But…”

“You’re the most feared man in the galaxy.”

A curt nod of the head from Fitz. “And he’s forgotten. Nothing more than a distant memory for those whose lives he made a living hell. But the Destroyer, where is she?”

He continued looking around the room, wondering where Daisy was. She was nowhere to be seen, all the other Inhumans were.

“She’s getting ready. She’s to fight today, one of my best guards, but I can get someone to check on her.” He looked around too, and grabbed for the nearest servant that was walking past, the one from earlier, Jemma. As his hand wrapped around her arm, she stopped and turned to face him, as though this were something natural, the thing she had to do, and he supposed, it was. This was her life, serving the Kree, and there was nothing that she could do about it.

“Jemma,” he smiled at her. “The marauder here would like to see the Destroyer; can you check on her?”

Jemma bowed her head, before setting the plate down on the table, the thing piled high with bright, plump fruit. Then she left the room, Kasius’ attention and focus no longer on her like his was. “She obeys you well, seems to follow your instructions,” Fitz commented. He was curious about why they would follow someone so cruel so ruthless if brainwashing wasn’t involved, why they would voluntarily. There had to be something else, something more to them.

The Kree’s lip flickered up in a wicked grin as he gave a curt nod of his head, gesturing for Fitz to follow him. “I’m not sure how well known my servants are outside of this system, but they know what’s expected of them. They know what the consequences of disobeying are, and they also know that I’m offering them a better life than the one they could have. I’m a perfectionist, marauder, and that needs to be preserved. Humanity, it was never a beautiful race, not truly, but there were a few, those who were beautiful, those who were perfect, and beauty, it needs to be cultivated.”

Fitz listened as he rambled on, waiting for the moment that his plan would come together, wait for it all to come together and get the hell out of here. He just hoped May hadn’t got caught sneaking in.

He let Kasius ramble on for another number of minutes before he saw her out of the corner of his eyes. May. She gave him the sign for him to duck down, and seconds later, chaos erupted in the room.

He pushed Kasius to the side, dropping to the ground and sliding under the nearest table as May also dropped to the ground, slamming the sonic staff into the ground. The shockwave from it was bigger than he expected, and it sent everyone in the room; Kree, slave and Inhuman alike, to the ground. Unconscious.

Once it had settled and it was safe, May and Fitz made their way out of their hiding, meeting in the middle of the room. “You know where Daisy is?” she asked, and Fitz nodded, crouching down and reaching into Kasius’ robes, grabbing for the remote that would activate Daisy’s powers, and allow for them to escape here. “Follow me.”

***

“Fitz! May!” Daisy called, pushing Jemma to the side as her friends came running to her. The other woman stumbled as she wrapped her arms around May before going back to Fitz. “You guys did it. I wasn’t…”

“We did,” Fitz reassured, a smile on his lips to reassure her. “We did it.”

“And Kasius?”

“They’re going to be out for a while. Are you ready for your powers?”

She nodded, wincing only slightly as Fitz hit the button that deactivated the implant that she had in. “Thank you, now how are we getting home?” She knew that there was a lot that they needed to talk about, that she had been away from her team for so long, but that discussion, it was not the time to be having it; this wasn’t the place. “In case you haven’t noticed we’re stuck a good seven decades in the future.”

“There’s a portal opening down the corridor in ten minutes,” Fitz explained, helping Daisy to grab what few possessions that she did have here, chucking them into a bag. “But we have to leave, now.”

Daisy nodded, looking around the room one more time, the place that had become something like home in the months she had been trapped here. Jemma herself had backed against the wall, staring at them in shock, her face a mask of horror, her face showing emotion for the first time in all the time that Daisy’s ever seen her. Her forehead was scrunched up, the gold glittering in the dim light.

But the Daisy turned away, ignoring her. She didn’t even know the other woman that well, she had just been the one who was sent to clean her chambers, do the Kree’s dirty work. This woman’s life was here, this was who she was. She wasn’t a bad person, just a person who was trapped in a bad situation and as much as she wished she could help, she couldn’t. They didn’t have enough time. Getting out of here was the priority, and as much as she hated it, she wouldn’t ever be able to save everyone, Jemma included. So she had to turn away, to focus her mind on something else.  “Let’s go.”

May nodded, her gaze wondering over Jemma too before deciding against it, following Fitz and Daisy out of the room, the younger woman left alone in the room.

***

Jemma shook her head, trying to keep her emotions in check. She had no idea what was happening, where these people were taking Daisy, but it couldn’t be good. They seemed to be friends with her, taking her away, Daisy going willingly, not putting up a fight and she couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t let Daisy go, couldn’t let her leave the Lighthouse. Kasius wouldn’t be happy if she did. She was the one who had seen Daisy last, and if Daisy was taken, then the blame would fall on her and she wasn’t sure that she would survive her master’s wrath.

So she followed them, hurrying down the corridor faster than she normally did, keeping behind them so that she wasn’t spotted. They weren’t that far ahead of her anyway, and the corridor was emptier than it was normally was. They turned a sharp left, into one of the other chambers that was empty, and she stood outside, staring into the room. The three of them stood in front of something, a metal frame, some apparatus that she didn’t understand. The man, the one who Kasius referred to as the marauder, was working on it, then suddenly something rippled in it, a shimmering that did not seem good. She gasped, the noise escaping her before she even knew what was happening.

She didn’t even know how loud she was, because Daisy and the other woman turned to face her and she knew that she was trapped. They were probably just as dangerous as the Kree, if not even more. And they had seen her.

Their lips were moving frantically, as though they were shouting something, the marauder moving frantically around the frame. Something seemed to be going wrong with it, even though she couldn’t hear what was happening, she just knew that something was happening. Something bad.

Then the frame seemed to shake violently, before exploding in a flash of light.

***

“Did we do it?” Daisy asked, looking around the room. It didn’t look like that room in which they had just been in in the Lighthouse.

“You did,” came a voice from across the room and she looked at who it was coming from. Coulson. “Welcome home Agent Johnson.”

“Coulson!” she called out, unable to help herself as she wrapped her arms around him, Coulson himself pulling her in close. “I can’t tell you how glad I am seeing you.”

“It’s been a long time.” He pulled back, looking at her, a friendly smile on his face. “But you’re okay?” He sounded unsure. It had seemed as though he had aged in the time he had been away, all the months she had been gone putting the weight of the world on his shoulders. But she was here, she was home, and she had no intentions on returning to the future. On leaving the base, her team, her own family against her own free will again.

“Nothing that a hot shower and some proper food won’t fix.” She beamed up at him. “Is there anything I need to know, anything that I missed?” There had to have been stuffed she missed. She was gone months after all, and the last thing that she wanted was to be behind. To lose more time than she had already.

“We can catch up later,” he told her, looking at Fitz and May who had taken a step back, allowing the two of them to have their reunion. Then his face twisted, turning sour. Confused. Daisy was about to ask what, but Coulson just took a step forward, brushing past and raising a hand to silence Mack and Elena who had come into the room upon realising their friend had just come back, towards whatever was behind her.

Whoever was behind her.

Daisy spun around, unable not too and saw her standing there, looking terrified, pure fear in her eyes as she looked around at everyone.

Jemma.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A massive shout out to stjarna and monkeybum1723 for helping me with this part! You guys rock!

She stared at these people, people who she had never seen before, who were all talking, their lips moving furiously. They were all talking, but she couldn’t hear them, nothing but silence leaving their lips. One of them, an older man stepped forward, trying to come close to her and she stumbled back, terrified. He had his arms raised, as though he were showing that he meant no harm, but she had no idea who he was, what his intentions where.

She had no idea who any of these people were, where this place was. She just knew that she had to get out of here, get to safety and try and find her way back to what she knew. Had to get away from here, and back to some sort of normalcy.

After some stumbling, she managed to take off down the corridor, only seeing out of her peripheral vision that it was vaguely like the place that she had just been taken from, the place that she had once called home. But it looked so different, it was so unfamiliar.

She continued running until she reached a dead end, a corridor leading to the right, and another leading to the left. She had no idea which way she was going to turn when suddenly, there was a pounding in her head. There was a ringing in her ears and she dropped down to her knees, unable to stand anymore as she covered her ears with her hands, pressing them to her head in an attempt to stop the pain.

A scream escaped her, but she didn’t hear it, and it must have echoed down the corridor as only moments later, there were hands over her, turning her so that she could face them, supporting her and helping her to sit up. It was him. The marauder. The one who had taken Daisy. He was saying something to her, but she couldn’t hear. Tears streamed down her face, dropping onto her lap, leaving golden drops on her legs, ruining her robes. And despite the pain, the hurt that she was suffering, she knew that when she found Kasius again, she wasn’t going to survive, not with having lost Daisy to these… these people. Not with having ruined her robes and her makeup. He would kill her for that, and he wouldn’t be quick. He would draw it out, make her suffer. But still, she fought. Fought to get away from these people. Fought to get back to what she knew, but she couldn't. The marauder's grip on her too strong. She couldn't get out, and that only made her panic all the more.

***

“What’s going on?” Fitz called out to Daisy who was just standing there, staring at this woman scream and scream and scream, pain heavy in her voice as she wiggled in his arms as she tried to get away, only to be held tighter by Fitz. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t, I don’t know… the implant!” The realisation hit her, and she rushed down to kneel beside Fitz. “The implant. Fitz, Kasius puts something in their ear, that’s what renders them deaf, but allows them to hear his orders. We need to get this out, that’s what’s causing her this pain. It has to be.” Because, there was no other reason that Jemma could be screaming like this, nothing else that she knew that could be causing this much pain, causing Jemma to have her hands clamped over her ears. Because she knew that Jemma wasn’t lying, putting this on. She couldn’t be.

“Then get me something,” he asked, not caring who was listening or what he was brought. “Just bring me something, anything. I need to get this out!” There was movement, stuff that he paid little attention to, then someone was placing tongs in his hands. “This is going to hurt, okay?” he asked Jemma, ensuring that she could read his lips but she wasn’t paying attention. “I need your help,” he turned to Daisy. “Hold her down, okay?”

A nod from his friend, and together, between the two of them, they managed to get Jemma into his lap, her head resting there as she continued to fight to get free, begged for them to let her go. She was completely oblivious to what was going on. But Daisy held her down, keeping her wrists pinned together, away from her ears as Fitz took a breath and using the tongs, reached into her ear canal. Though it took a few attempts, he managed to clamp onto the implant and with one gentle tug, he was able to pull it out, the rounded metal object coated in blood.

The wide panicked eyes of Jemma looked up at him as he examined the object, the thing that had been causing her so much pain, now gone. Her screaming had stopped, something that he took as a good sign, but there was still that panicked look in her eyes, and her breaths were deep and ragged, like she was struggling to get oxygen into her lungs.

“What do we do now?” Fitz asked Daisy, and he didn’t miss Jemma wincing at the sound, as he had asked the question too loud.

“I don’t know,” Daisy replied, letting go of her hands and sitting back now that Fitz was done before looking behind her now, at the rest of the team and the other agents that had gathered behind them. A ripple passed through them, a whispering but to Jemma, it still seemed too much, as if someone was shouting into her ears.

She groaned at the noise, rolling out of Fitz’s lap and onto the cold hard concrete of the floor, curling up in on herself as if she could protect herself against the noise. Her hands covered her ears once more and she squeezed her eyes closed, even throwing off Fitz’s hand as he came to let it rest on shoulder, a gesture that was supposed to be reassuring. “Make it stop,” she hissed, begging for silence.

Fitz shot Daisy a look unsure what to do. This here, Jemma coming back with them, it was something that they had never expected, and it was now something that they were going to have to deal with. And Coulson didn’t look too happy with it. He was talking in a harsh hushed whisper to May, words that he couldn’t hear from his place down on the ground, but May soon nodded, and turned, walking off down the corridor.

He had no idea where she was going, but didn’t dare to ask Coulson, he looked angry, annoyed, as if this situation here was one that he didn’t want to be dealing with. Not that he was surprised, they had fought so much in recent months and were still trying to fight it, and now they had this to deal with. A Kree servant from the future.

The minutes started to pass, and still no one made a move, no one knew what to do. No one wanted to make any movements, wanted to attempt to move Jemma from where she was nothing more than bundle of pale blue robes on the floor. The noise to her must have been deafening; the whispers of everyone watching, intrigued by this mysterious woman; the clanking of the pipes as they heated the base.

Eventually May returned, everyone parting so that she could get through. She knelt down next to him on the ground, a syringe in her hand. A sedative. It had to be that. Something that would help Jemma until they could figure out the next step.

She cried out when May injected it into the back of her neck, but soon settled, the whimpering stopping as the drug took hold.

***

She woke up to an incessant beeping, the sound piercing her ears, and she couldn’t help the groan that escaped her. She squeezed her eyes closed against the harsh white light and reached up and covered her ears, feeling a tug on her wrist as she did so.

“Sorry,” a voice boomed over the beeps, reaching out and grabbing at her hand, removing the thing that she now felt clamped on her finger. There was a moment when the voice didn’t speak then the noise was gone. “Is that any better?”

“It’s still too loud,” she frowned, opening one eye slightly. The voice even cut through her hands clamped over her ears. She just wanted it to stop, for the comfort of silence to return to her. She had been living in it for so long now, her world of peace only punctured by her master’s voice that this here, it was too much for her.

“Sorry,” the voice spoke again, softer this time. “Is this any better?”

“A bit,” she replied, opening her eyes now, sitting up so that she could take in her surroundings and work out how she was going to get back to her place, and how she was going to explain what had happened, how she had lost the Destroyer now that her mind was clearer, the pain gone from it.

And that’s when she realised that it was Daisy who was sitting next to her on the bed, a soft smile on her face. And Jemma couldn’t help but think maybe not all was lost. Maybe she could still return.

“What?” Jemma asked, looking around the room, too bright, too clean. “What’s happening?” It was, it was all too much, all too confusing, and she had no idea what was truly going on. Where she was. Who these people where. She just wanted answers. “Where am I?”

“The Lighthouse,” she told her, and when Jemma just gaped at her she continued. “But 74 years in the past.”

Jemma just gaped at her, unable to comprehend what had happened. “We travelled… we travelled in time?”

Daisy nodded, watching as Jemma came to terms with what had happened, with what she had been through. She knew that it was going to be hard for Jemma to come to terms with what had happened, with now living in her time period, just as Daisy herself had been when she had travelled forward in time.

“But that shouldn’t be possible.” Jemma frowned but deep down, she knew that it was true. Time travel, it was technology that the Kree had been working on for years, and that they had actually succeeded, Daisy was evident of that. She had been brought forward from… well, this time period. And now, here she was, back in time. Away from everything and everyone that she knew. To her, this time, this place, it was as alien to her as any other planet would.

“Jemma?” Daisy’s tone was questioning, laced with something that Jemma found hard to pinpoint. Then she realised what it was, it was concern, something that Jemma hadn’t heard in so long now, something she had almost forgotten after all her years in servitude to Kasius.

“I just… I can’t be here,” she whispered, her voice weak, as though she were scared, as though she were terrified, and Daisy couldn’t help suppose that maybe Jemma was. She had been taken away from what she knew, ripped from the place that she called home, and thrown 74 years into the past, in a world that was so much louder than the one she knew.

“It’s going to be okay,” Daisy whispered, keeping her voice soft and gentle as Jemma began to cry, reaching over and taking the girl’s hand in her own, a gesture that she hoped was reassuring. “It’s going to be okay. No one’s going to hurt you, not here.”

***

And they did keep her safe, in all the weeks that followed her accidental time travel in adventure, and she started to like it here, with the people that Daisy called friends, that she called family. It had been so long since she had had something like this, people who looked out for her, people who saw her for who she was, treated her on the same level as they were, and not as if she were something lesser.

They treated her as an equal.

It was late one Wednesday evening when she heard a voice tell her something, the words piercing through the room, the silence that was somehow not so silent in the kitchen were she was washing the dishes. “You don’t need to do that love,” the accent so similar to what her older brother’s was like. She spun upon hearing it, almost dropping the mug that she was holding. For the briefest second she thought that he was here, in the room with her, that he was alive.. “It’s not your turn. I don’t even think you’re on the rota yet.”

She frowned at the agent who was standing there, a smirk on his face. He was telling her what everyone had told her whenever they found her tidying up, cleaning around the base.

“It’s comforting,” she told him, opening up about something that she had never really opened up before. She knew that the others always cast glances at her, whispering about her whenever they saw her tidying up, cleaning what didn’t even need cleaning. She did it more out of habit than anything else, a habit that she knew wouldn’t be easy to break, not after a decade of having to do it to stay alive. Even one glass out of place meant the difference between life and death where she came from. “Cleaning, tidying. It’s comforting.”

Hunter came into the room, his footsteps gentle as he came over to her and took the mug from her hand, the thing that she had forgotten that she was holding. He set it down, and smiled at her. “I know it’s comforting, but this here, you have freedom. You can’t tell me you’ve never dreamt of it.”

She had, she truly had, every single day. Every single night, she had dreamt of it, had dreamt of what life was like on Earth before it had been destroyed, had dreamt what it was like to walk through the grass, what it was like to have the sun beat down on her back and what it would be like to hear the birds sing. And now here she was, having all of that and so much more, that it was somewhat overwhelming. “I have,” she whispered back, meeting his eyes and holding his gaze when only a week ago she would have looked away. “It’s odd, getting to experience all this.”

“But you’re enjoying it?”

Her lips flicked up into a smile and she nodded. “I am.”

***

“The sunrise?” Fitz asked from behind her, coming to stand beside her, leaning against the wall.

“I’ve never really seen it before, not like this anyway.” A sigh escaped Jemma before she continued. “I never saw it when I was a child. My parents, they worked in processing, and the quarters down there, there were no windows. The first time that I ever saw that sun was when I was taken by Kasius…”

“How old were you?” he asked, cautious, not wanting to cross any boundaries, to overstep any marks. Jemma hadn’t opened up much about what her life was like, it was something that she kept secret. Something that she kept to herself.

“Eighteen. Just after my birthday.”

“Eighteen,” Fitz breathed, unable to believe she had been there that long, that she had been, had only known a life of slavery for the past decade, for nearly half her life. “That’s… that’s so young.”

She nodded, not once looking at him, keeping her eyes focused on the sunrise in front of her, the blues and the pinks and the oranges of the sky, colours she didn’t even think it was possible for the sky to be. “All teenagers, when they turn eighteen, they all go through Terrigenesis. Not all of us transform…”

“Jemma?” he asked, unsure where she was going with this. He knew that she wasn’t Inhuman, her bloodwork showed that, but there was something about they way she was speaking, as if she were saying that being Inhuman would have been better than the life that she had.

“I was taken to Kasius anyway, despite the fact that I never changed. I had reputation, with helping and my medical skills. So they took me, because I broke the rules.” She finally turned to him, giving him an uneasy smile, tears threatening to fall. “I helped one of his other slaves, he was injured in a fight for food, and I just helped. So they took me, took me because of my skills. He was still killed of course, because he had a cut on his forehead. But I was there and I… he wanted someone with my skill set, with what… It’s how I ended up there, and I just never knew anything else.”

“Until now,” he smiled at her, hoping to calm and reassure her.

“Until now,” she agreed, coming to stand closer to him, sinking into his side, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. His arm wrapped around her waist as he pulled her in close. The two of them had grown close in the months she had been here, in the months since she had returned to the past with them. He was the one she had become close to, had been the one who she had been spending time with. She had even been spending time in the lab with him, using the noise cancelling earplugs that he had made for her, when the noises and the sounds of everyday life got too much for her.

She felt him adjust himself, and she glanced at him, and found him looking at her, his eyes, a deep blue, full of something, a soft deep love, one that she had never known before. Her eyes dropped to his lips then, and before she really even knew what she was doing, she was kissing him, her lips dancing upon his. It was a deep tender kiss, but full of caution, as though neither of them were really sure what was happening,

“No,” she told him. “No. I want this. I want _you.”_

“Are you sure?” he asked, not wanting to cross any boundaries, not wanting to overstep any marks because he knew that Jemma was still getting to grips with life in the past, life in the Lighthouse in the earlier years of the twenty-first century.

She nodded, leaning back in and kissing him once more, nothing more than a brief peck on the lips, but it conveyed all the love and emotions that they both felt but had yet to speak about. They had grown close in the months, had started to experience something that was more than friendship, but had no idea how to talk about it. Her hand came to rest on his cheek, cupping it, and it was warm to the touch, a comforting feeling that she had never known before, not really. 

“Dinner?” he asked, breaking the silence that had formed between them, Jemma's hand still resting on his cheek when they had pulled apart once more. 

“I’d love that,” she whispered, smiling at him before leaning in once more to kiss him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so so sorry this took longer than I wanted to get this part posted. I had server writers block and no matter how hard I tried, nothing that I wrote seemed to flow. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this part and thanks for waiting!

**Author's Note:**

> So this fic turned out much longer than I had planned, but I've had the idea of a future!Jemma accidentally being transported into the past for months now and I've only just gotten around to writing it. The second chapter should be up some time next week, 500 words have already been drafted.
> 
> I really hope you enjoyed this one, thanks for taking the time to read!


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